Co Down chef turned author Louise Kennedy’s Troubles love story makes Waterstones debut novels shortlist

Louise Kennedy is originally from Holywood and now lives in Sligo. Her books, ‘Trespasses’, was inspired by her childhood on the shores of Belfast Lough where her grandmother ran a pub.

She said: “In 1975, the year the novel is set I was eight.

“I didn’t set out to write a book about the Troubles, I set out to write a love story, but I couldn’t set it in that year without the Troubles coming into it.”

Louise explained: “When I cast my mind back to when I was a child, I remember a lot of tension, a heavy security presence everywhere.

“I remember that the adults all around me all seemed to be nervous wrecks, the radio was on all the times, the TV was on all the time.

“As well there are lots of details that anyone who had a 1970s childhood would remember – songs that were in the charts, the clothes we wore, the fairly terrible foods that we were given, the way that people’s houses were decorated. Pretty much all of the adults around me chain-smoked cigarettes.”

Louise left Holywood in 1979 and moved to Naas in Co Kildare. She went to college in Dublin, and has lived in London and in Beirut. She moved to Sligo in the late 90s.

Of her career as a chef Louise said: “I cooked in Beirut, in various places. When I left school I did a Social Science degree, I thought I might like to be a social worker, but that didn’t work out.

“I borrowed money and did a crash cordon bleu cookery course. I cooked and ran restaurants for nearly 30 years. I’ve been feeding people since I was about 20.

“I think I’m quite preoccupied with what people eat, there’s a quite a lot of food in my writing.”

Louise’s short stories have appeared in journals including The Stinging Fly, The Tangerine, Banshee, Wasifiri and Ambit and she has written for the Guardian, Irish Times, BBC Radio 4 and RTE Radio 1.

She is one of six authors shortlisted for the prize which celebrates debut fiction and is voted for by Waterstones booksellers.

Waterstones said: “Trespasses is an unflinching history of life in 1970s Belfast and a poleaxing love story which celebrates the beauty to be found in the darkest times. Told with real restraint and skill, this powerful, resonant novel is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand this important part of our recent history.”

The winner will be announced on August 25.

Louise said: “It’s unbelievable to be on the shortlist, they’re all writers who I really admire.

“The thing I really love is that it’s nominated by booksellers, a lot of that is based on feedback by readers.

“People are calling it historical fiction which is making me feel very old – that something that happened during my lifetime is history.”

She added: “I think that there is a huge amount of really great writing coming out of the north, or people who are from there but now living elsewhere.

“Not all of it is specifically about the Troubles but I do think there is a very Northern streak, it’s maybe something you might not find to the same extent in writing from other places. I do think there’s a very deep gallows humour that people from the north of Ireland have.

“There are other characteristics as well. There’s fiction maybe dealing with legacy issues, not about what happened then, but the effect of those years.”

Louise said her favourite authors are Edna O’Brien and Anne Enright.

She added: “There’s a friend of mine, Michael Magee from Belfast, who has a novel coming out early next year. I’ve read a proof of it and it’s completely brilliant.

“There’s a poet who works in Queen’s called Gail McConnell who has a poetry collection that has won a few awards. It’s called ‘The Sun Is Open’. It is a completely stunning book.”